This table from the Washington Post puts the sequestration cuts in perspective.Not so Draconian, are they?

Last week was the 20-year anniversary of the assault on the Branch Davidian at Waco. As Philip Jenkins points out, such religious separatist groups are not uncommon in American history. What was new was the reaction of the government to such groups.

There is something truly bizarre about a government that has a position for "language minister." Quebec's language police are going after restaurants for not translating "pasta" or "WC" into French.

Here's one theory on why romantic comedies are so bad these days: we just don't have any social barriers for couples to cross these days. Of course, they could still make romances where the plots evolves from the characters themselves rather than societal barriers.

The language police thing is a function of their French heritage. France has a government bureacracy devoted to protecting the purity of the French language. They try hard as hell to get people not to use foriegn (read English) words when speaking French.

Which is part of the explanation for why the world speaks English instead of French.